Nov
28
Do You Make the Risk or Take the Risk From Your Prospects - How Risk Might be Killing Your Business
∇ Category:Design | → |
I’ve had the same barber for the last 10 years and the same deodorant for the five. How about you?
I’ll bet that you have a trusted barber/stylist, and if you’re like me, once you find a deodorant you like, you stick with it. Okay, enough about barbers and antiperspirants, the question is, “Why are people so unwilling to try new products and services?” Even though when you ask people if they think there might be a better alternative out there, why don’t they make a switch? Risk - the risk is too great.
Hair and sweat probably have nothing to do with your business, but no matter what business you’re in, there are customers - good customers that want to buy from you but their perceived risk is too high. If you own your own business, ask yourself, “Am I losing customers because it’s too risky to work with me?“
The more risk there is in working with your business, the more prospects will elect to stay with their current choice, or perhaps look into another solution that’s not quite so risky. What risks are associated with doing business with you? If you don’t know you need to find out - now! Ask your prospects what risks they feel are associated with working with you, and ask your customers what risks they overcame in deciding to work with you. Smart business owners don’t speculate or use a magic 8-ball in identifying consumer risk, they get right to the source - asking their prospects and customers.|
Take a Look Around:
Once you’ve talked to your prospects and customers, take a close look at what the rest of the industry is doing. Does your competition attempt to reduce the risk for prospects? Do they make it easier for prospects to work with them? Ask yourself, “Is it easier for prospects and customers to work with XYZ Company than me?” If the answer is “Yes”, you might be losing a lot of business.
What’s the Risk?
Smart business owners identify what are the main risks in doing business with their company, and then try to minimize them. Here are some common consumer apprehensions that can keep prospects from buying from you:
- How do I know I am getting the best value?
- What if I find a better price two weeks after I buy from you?
- How do I know your service will be good three months down the line?
- What if you don’t make our deadlines?
- What if I don’t like your product, can I get a refund?
So What Can You Do to Minimize Risk?
- Offer a guarantee (price, delivery, service, quality)
- Offer a trial period
- Offer a discount to new customers
Taking risk away from prospects makes it easier to them to business with you. You might have seen Right Guard do this several years ago with wonderful success. They proposed that if you didn’t like their deodorant you could, “send it back and they’ll buy you a stick of yours”. This gives you tremendous credibility and let’s prospects know that you stand behind your product/service. Prospects think, “Hey, if they are willing to stand behind their product/service, it has to be good”.
The Bottom Line for Sharp Business Owners:
- There’s a risk to working with you
- Find out what those risks are, do it today
- Analyze how your competition is reducing customer risk
- Conceptualize and test your strategy to minimize customer risk
- Make sure that your marketing and advertising confidently expresses how you’ve minimized the major risks that prospects have, after all, what good is minimizing risk if no one knows about it? If you’re not an expert in marketing and advertising, hire someone who is.
A business savvy graphic designer is often a contradiction in terms; however, Jeremy is a unique combination of sharp business marketer and creative designer. This one-two punch provides clients with targeted marketing, advertising and design projects that yield outstanding results and a terrific return on their investment; they actually work. Companies looking to feel more confident and credible with their business brand, tired of getting lost in a crowd of competitors and always feeling like they have to compete on price, need to call Jeremy at 480.391.0704.
If you are looking for more free insight and inspiration, you’ll want to get in on the “Can-Do Confidence Builder”. Emailed weekly, the Confidence Builder provides you with essential marketing and design insights that help you get the most out of your investment and help you to stay one step ahead of the competition. Email Jeremy at comments@candographics.com and asked to be added to our list or visit http://www.candographics.com
